Friday, September 20, 2013

A 3rd birthday party to remember!

Londyn, of course, turned three last month. As if I haven't made a big enough deal about it. Her birthday was simple and PERFECT. Let me tell you why- It was about HER!

I made the decision that I wasn't going to do too much for her little party. I did a lot more for her 1st birthday party and specifically remember being stressed that day. I recall being so happy when her party was over, the guests had gone home, everything was cleaned up and we could finally focus on her. And what a concept. I mean that is what a birthday is all about, right?

This year, I knew I had to put some work into it and make it special, but I wanted to have the right balance. I wanted to be relaxed and just enjoy my little, growing, beautiful princess.

I am so pleased with how the day turned out.

The morning of her birthday she woke up and was a little shy about the start of the day. I mean she had been looking forward to her special day for at least a month before it came. Everyday she would talk about her birthday and what she wanted. Every store we were at she would ask for special things… for her birthday of course!

I love this progression of pictures because you can see her apprehension about all the presents. (Are they really for me?!) But, she slowly loosened up and just got plain, ol'...

EXCITED!

I wanted Trip to feel special on her birthday too. After all he is only 1 (almost 2) and doesn't quite understand the birthday concept. We wanted him to have some nice things to open. He got a brobee stuffed animal and some shoes!

Londyn made out like a bandit on her birthday. All of the above presents were from us and some family. She got more awesome presents that evening. I even asked everyone NOT to bring presents.

I did what I could do to make the party feel pulled together, but not over do it. The guests just wanted some good food and good company and it isn't too hard to pull that together! :)

I was primarily responsible for the desserts and buying most of the goods (of course)! Sam worked it on the BBQ and I didn't get pictures of most of it. I took these before the party started.

Homemade strawberry cake frosted with strawberry buttercream is our family tradition. I make it for our special days. Here is her cake! It is a fantastically, amazingly perfect cake/cupcake. I am being serious. SO GOOD!

Almond cookies

Cupcakes with homemade cupcake toppers (so easy)!

I searched all over for the right cupcake toppers (and by all over I mean on amazon)… and I didn't find anything I loved… so I made them. I also made some very rich frosted brownies and of course I had candy jars filled to the brim. You can never have too much sugar at a birthday party. (It took me a couple weeks to recover from all the sugar I ate! ah!)

The donuts were mostly for looks.. because who doesn't LOVE looking at a pile of soft, colorful donuts… and then eating them? (They ALL got eaten.)

I made this birthday garland and planned all along to hang it up above the table (it would have looked way better). Unfortunately I didn't have way to hang it above. Poor planning… meh.

I used ONE bed sheet that I had on hand in one of my craft bins. I bought the sheet set for dirt cheap back when we lived in Alabama. I thought it was a a nice girly fabric and figured I'd use it one day. I made the cupcake toppers and garland with it and then used the excess for a bunchy table cloth. It tied the party together, it was a CINCH and it was cheap and it helped me achieve my goal of throwing a nice, simple party and keeping my focus on my sweetie.

You can see the top of the outdoor BBQ behind these handsome boys… I mean, men.

Londyn during her birthday song. Deer in headlights… but a cute deer at that.

I just like this picture of her hair. This was in the middle of opening presents. She was in heaven.

Trip, kicking back enjoying a bag of doritos. It's a guy thing. He gets it from his Dad who can finish a whole bag of doritos in one sitting.

And of course I didn't get even one picture of me with my birthday girl. I had plans of getting a few family pictures snapped. But, such is life when you are the woman behind the camera and you are too busy flitting around the party.

The evening turned out perfectly. We have so many amazing friends here in Germany. We only invited half of the people we wanted to invite (the other half will be getting an invite to Trip's party)!! The dynamic was perfect and I am so glad we did it that way. We had lots of guests, yet it was still intimate and even though the party was supposed to end at 7, our guests didn't leave until 9:30 PM. We were all just enjoying each others company.